The greatest invention of the 21st century so far

This is the best, the very best. It solves a problem I was just fussing over yesterday: Email demands exclamation points to be understood. (Thanks! See you tomorrow! I appreciate your returning my message!) Put a period at the end of any of those and they sound awful. But the exclamation mark seems as if it emanates from a person who dots her (always her) i’s with chubby flowers.

Using the Spanish words for “the king” also suggests that an ElRey connotes comfortable mastery of protocol and politesse, intertwined with a steadfast refusal to raise one’s voice unless something is on fire. Visually, it borrows the Spanish-language double-deployment of ¡exclamation! marks, but combines the two symbols to suggest roughly half the level of exclaiming: precisely the new measurement we need.

It looks like an exclamation point with a dot at the top and a dot at the bottom. Of course, it can’t easily be represented right now, but give it time. Anything that truly solves a problem finds a way. Doesn’t it?

Maybe you remember Adolph Hofner and The Pearl Beer Wranglers.
For years they were also the house band at The Farmers Daughter honky tonk on Loop 13 (W.W. White Rd.)in San Antonio.
They were always playing on the Pearl Beer float in the Battle of Flowers Parade. They were also always at San Antonio Livestock Show & Rodeo in the coliseum walkway.

Thanks, O. C.! I’ve been to a couple of the Accordian Kings festivals at Hermann Park and it’s pretty interesting seeing the similarities between polkas, norteno and zydeco. I spent some years working as a music critic and the strangest story I did was when the American Accoridian Association (be careful which AAA you call when you have a flat!) had their national convention in Houston. 600 accordians playing “Yellow Rose of Texas” at the Water Wall. Weird beyond belief, in a very fun way.

Don’t know what to call the new punctuation mark, but I guarantee that someone just figured out what to get on the inside of the wrist for their next tattoo!

This reminds me of a columnist in a small indie paper in New Orleans! His (sorry MeMo, this was a he) entire column ended every sentence with an exclamation point! Despite otherwise decent writing, this made it surprisingly awkward to read!